Mission: Kilimanjaro 2016

Feeding needs and hungering souls
Story and photos by Gary Fallesen
President, Climbing For Christ
Turning his eyes up to the mountains: Damson Samson looks up to summit of Kilimanjaro on second morning of trek. Four days later, he stood at Africa’s highest point.
In the beginning was the Question, and the Question was with us. Every time a Climbing For Christ team met the guides and porters who were part of the Kilimanjaro Chapter, we were asked:
“When are you going to start a trekking company here?”
Those who joined the Kilimanjaro Chapter – ...
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Mission: Kilimanjaro 2016
By Gary Fallesen
Climbing For Christ
CLICK HERE to read the Mission: Kilimanjaro 2016 Trip Report: Feeding needs and hungering souls
Wednesday, Aug. 31
Damson, second from right, with the rest of our team and guides (left to right) Saidi, Jim, Yusuf, Gary and Joe on top of Barranco Wall (about 14,000 feet).
Our team was at the Mweka Huts on Kilimanjaro, the last of six camps during our seven-day trek, doing daily devotionals together. We were on our way down from the mountaintop. The lesson from a new study written by Climbing For Christ ...
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Living to tell the tale of Jesus
By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ
Gary tied into a rope for the first time on Mount Rainier in 1996. (Photo by Kevin Flynn)
I was introduced to mountaineering by my friend Kevin Flynn in August 1996. I had written about his climbs on Denali and Aconcagua as a sports writer for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle newspaper, asking the common question: “Why do you climb?” When I became the outdoor writer at the paper, I decided I wanted to find out what climbing was all about. I asked to go on a tri...
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Kilimanjaro Chapter members meeting with Damson Samson.
Praying for more lives transformed
Gregory Nyange Aman’s life has been changed by his association with the Kilimanjaro Chapter. He stopped smoking and drinking, and he testified that all of the “challenges in the family” that resulted from those vices have “completely gone away.”
“Now, they are able to pray together as a family,” said Damson Samson, Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa.
Gregory Nyange Aman.
Damson’s latest mission trip to Tanza...
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Mount Kilimanjaro summit ridge, 1998.
Roots on the rooftop of Africa
By Gary Fallesen
Founding president, Climbing For Christ
Kilimanjaro holds a special place in the formation and growth of Climbing For Christ. As I was training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in 1998, God spoke to me and told me to start a Christian climbing organization.
From that encounter on a road outside of Rochester, NY, USA, Climbing For Christ was eventually born. In the original “Mission: Vision,” written in June 2004, Kilimanjaro was identified as a “model mission,” where we could se...
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Jim Doenges, right, with a backpacking class in Colorado’s Maroon Bells.
Nationality: USA. Occupation: Outdoor Minister/Teacher. Missions with C4C: Denali 2007; Haiti 2007; Kilimanjaro 2007, 2008 and 2016; Nepal 2008.
How long have you climbed? 38 years. Type of climbing you do: Mostly Class II-IV hiking, some winter mountaineering, occasional Class V rock (top rope), and lots of spiritual climbing (elevating!). Highlight of climbing career: Getting eight of nine teammates to the summit during Climbing for Christ’s Mission: Denali 2007.
How long have you been a Christia...
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Damson Samson lives in southern Malawi, but most of his work for Climbing For Christ is done in northeastern Tanzania. He became Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa in March 2014 and has been sent to the Kilimanjaro area seven times from mid-2014 through 2015.
Damson is looking forward to Mission: Kilimanjaro 2016, which will occur in August. A Climbing For Christ team will join Damson in teaching and encouraging guides and porters who are part of the Kilimanjaro Chapter (formed in 2008). Team members also will climb Kilimanjaro. This will be our ninth Kilimanjaro expediti...
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Joe Trussell on Sajama in Bolivia.
Nationality: American (born in Bolivia). Occupation: Lead pastor. Missions with C4C: Ararat 2013 and Kilimanjaro 2016.
How long have you climbed? More than 25 years. Type of climbing you do: Snow and ice in the past; now mostly trekking the Colorado 14ers. Highlight of climbing career: Summitting 21,463-foot Sajama in Bolivia.
How long have you been a Christian? Since age 6. Type of ministry you are blessed to serve in: Pastoring; chairman of denomination’s World Missions Board.
Favorite Scripture verse (and why): Philippians 3:10-11. “I ...
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Damson teaching one of the orphans supported by Climbing For Christ's Project 1:27.
Nationality: Malawian. Occupation: C4C missionary to East Africa. Missions with C4C: Kilimanjaro 2010, 2011, 2014 (twice), 2015, 2016 and 2017, and Malawi 2014, 2016 and 2017. (Note: Kilimanjaro 2010 and 2011 included trips from Tanzania to Malawi, partnering with Searchlight Ministries, where Damson served. After meeting Damson in 2010, Climbing For Christ paid for his college education in Lilognwe, Malawi. He accepted a call to serve as C4C's missionary to East and Southern Africa beginning July 2...
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